Are Republicans and Conservatives Zealots?

[Homer12]

This is just my opinion or rant.

Thanks,

Homer12

By zealots, I mean, political, religious, and finally corporate fundamentalists?

Buscho and the Fascist GOP are playing S&M games with all three types of extreme ideologies.

This is just a simple generalized question, but I think it hits on why these type of mindsets cull, "Hatred" towards anybody or any POV that differs from theirs.

Be it being against civil Gay Marriage, which is nothing more than modern day Bigotry (a simmering hatred), or lashing out at the left or center when "we" are correct on issues and facts, or just out-right lying and smearing - hatred bred from fear is the reason for their actions and their megalomaniac lust for power.

Lets get this straight, a good portion of right-wing thinkers and people "Hate Us", because of who we are and what we are.
Argument and fair and ethical discussion mean nothing to many of them, thats why they live by the By-Any-Means-Necessary Modus Operandi.

They are at "War", they view us as their "enemies" (To many of them there is not much difference between "us" and radical Islamic terrorists, in fact I would go as to far say that many hate the left even more) and they will stop at nothing until they crush the center and the left.

Mike Savage, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Newt Gingrich, Bushco, Rove, Fox News, Tom Delay, Ashcroft, etc............the list of opportunistic zealots goes on for miles and miles.
These people "hate us" as well as hundreds of thousands of their culled brainwashed clones whom are their jack-booted Storm Troopers.

What can we do? What should we do? How do we deal with Zealots?

[salinen]

1. There is a temporary void

of people for the pukes to hate. The leaders of the movement are scrambling to find "others". Gays are filling the "Iraqi" void. Not to worry, they will find enough hate to satisfy the haters.

[trixtium]

9. Running out of People to Hate?

I think that, sooner or later as they run out of targets to smear, cheap-labor hatemongers are going to turn on each other. Rush vs Hannity, Coulter vs Savage, etc. They can't bash the straw man forever, after all.

[demothinker]

2. You can't deal with zealots

They're beyond redemption, because they don't formulate their opinions based on fact or reason, they develop their opinions by selfishness or hatred. The only worthwhile cause is appealing to the group that is undecided on an issue, supporting the issue through misguided reason, or supporting the issue through listening to the lies and rhetoric of the zealots.

The important thing to remember is to be careful on how you deal with the zealots. If you sink too far to their level, you lose a credibility advantage to the groups mentioned above. However, as wrong as is is, people do sometimes take passivity as weakness, so a certain measure of "fighting fire with fire" is necessary.

I think the best strategy is to combat the zealots with equally passionate, but not nearly as hateful, speech that clearly outlines the issues and points out the lying and hypocrisy of the zealots, such as Dean and Franken have been able to do successfully recently. That's the way to affect the people in the afore-mentioned groups, and once you do that, the zealots lose their power.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Homer12]

4. Read my post again and answer some of my arguments....

...without changing the subject.

[Homer12]

7. Simple Facts

- My post was not about Tax cuts, but the definition is scary, and the last 3 details are becoming more real by the day.

1) For many, anti-government/big brother Republicans and conservatives, seem not to mind and actually are willing to give up American Freedoms that are written into the Bill-OF-Rights for security. The Patriot Act and the extension of FBI powers are real manifestations of this erosion.

2) These same Right Wingers are more than willing to take on Pre-Emptive Warfare as a Policy, which if you put this policy into historical context is what militaristic and totalitarian governments have done throughout history. Invasion is invasion, and Hitler had to pre-emptivly invade other countries before the start of WWII to keep Nazi Germany safe (Hitlers justification is not to much different than GW's if you care to look). Also, if you are aware of the PNAC, you'll see the ideological basis for the use and extension of American military Power as a means for Global American Dominance (i.e. empire ala Roman); Lying to get us into war is something Totalitarian Regimes do.


3)Fact: the Bush Administration is the most secretive one ever. If you care to delve deeper, you'll find out that Buscho since 9/11 has been trying to centralize power in the Executive branch by vetoing workers rights in the Homeland (even this term itself is revolting, using simplistic rhetoric why don't we call our country the Fatherland) security agency has set-up "free-Speech zones" to distance protesters from the media, the list can go on and on, etc....

4) My life is not miserable, Go Packers. Nice personal attack by the way.

5) "Jack-Booted Storm Troopers" this is meant to put a mental image that many, many right-wingers act like Nazi's these days.
The willingness to forsake civil rights for perceived security to the willingness to let Bushco spend (government spending has gone up at least 15%), the complacency to let the national debt rise (Fiscal conservatives were are they now?) The willingness not to hold the political leaders, accountable for their actions.
The OK to let the rights media talking heads say just about anything from charging all liberals as traitors and communists and un-American for questioning the status quo and the Right wing. Not holding Rush and his ilk accountable for their hypocrisy. The complacency to let the Right-Wing media lie, lie, lie by omission of act, by character assassination, the list goes on.

Group Think has destroyed most independent thought on the Right, Hatred has poisoned most reason and Logic on the Right, the self-indulgent Moral superiority on the Right has made the Right think that the ends-always-justify-the-means.

Since 9/11 and the Iraq War the right-wing has spiraled, out of fear and anger/spite and hatred; it is transforming itself into something fare worse than it was in the 1990's. Since the rhetoric in the right-wing media is so shill and right-wingers don't seem to hold them accountable, it's not a far fetch to think that hundreds of thousands of Americans feel the same way.

Maybe "Jack-Booted StormTroopers is over the top, so I'll re-phrase it, "Neo-Conservative Fear Mongering Zealots."

[gold_bug]

5. some of them are

but it's something that occurs at the periphery of any political movement or belief or ideology. In that respect political ideology can become almost as intense as fundamental religious beliefs, and as violently intolerant and collectivistic. One of the problems with the American right today is that they're so powerful and the radical/extreme elements are tolerated and encouraged by the mainstream Republicans.

[Printer70]

6. There are Zealots in both parties

They are called partisans. They are like soldiers- told what to think, told to hate/dehumanize the "enemy", and to take marching orders. They NEVER criticize their leaders, even when it's blatantly obvious they've done something wrong. Instead, they change the subject and attack the opposition. Personally, I think partisanship is the most intellectually offensive aspect of politics. It robs people of objectivity and ability to think clearly and dispassionately on the issues of the day. Every once in a while, I need to step back and talk to average people who don't really care about politics, just solutions, to see the big picture.

[Heritic]

8. Mr. Backwards

I have a prime example. http://expage.com/republicancomments
If any Dean fan is reading this, he thinks Dean is racist. And Im the Eric he's always arguing with, fyi.

[HST]

10. off the subject a little but......

seeing how I can't start my own thread yet I though everyone would be interested in what www.ronaldreagon.com has been turned into for the moment. I'm really curious if an anti-abortionist would actually do that to a conservative site??? Seems weird and very stupid if so. But who knows which side will take blame for it.

[Eye See You]

11. Neo-Cons are zealots!

Conservatives are pretty lukeware compared to the Neo-Cons masterplan of an American Empire.